The Shuffling Dead
by Hastseoltoi
Summary: Series of shorts based on Spotify prompts; will include all cast members at various times (even though we can only list 4 here). Some introspective, some action, canon compliant couples.
1. Chapter 1

Joey- Concrete Blonde

He was the only one who was really trying to help her, and she wasn't always sure what that meant. Carol had the feeling that he was doing it for himself more than it was for her or Sophia; he had the air of someone who had been left behind and kicked when he was down too many times to count. It was a look that she recognized well enough from her own mirror. It was what let her forgive him so easily when he lashed out at her too.

Daryl had a way of distancing himself, and lashing out, like an injured animal being cornered by an unknown threat. It was as though he didn't know what to do with their regard when they thanked him for anything, or were concerned for his well-being, and so it made him angry. Carol understood that far too well also, remembering times when friends or family had wanted to help her escape her marriage to Ed. They had made it seem like such a simple thing, but it was never that easy.

It wasn't just that Ed would have found her and possibly killed her, as he had threatened numerous times, there was more to it than that. Everything in her life was tied up around him, and cutting those ties was harder than just walking away. She would have lost so much. She had tried though, for Sophia, but it was never quite enough to actually break free. Looking at Daryl made her think of all the times in which she had found herself in a new place, unsure of what to expect but knowing that the bad was usually more common than the good.

Carol wanted to reach out and let him know that he was as good as anyone in their group, and that he didn't need to distance himself from them. They needed him more than he needed them. She wanted him to stay and feel like he was accepted. He deserved to find that sense of belonging, of family, even if the only family anyone seemed to have now was found along the roads. If only he would listen.

* * *

AN: I wanted to try a new series, based on Spotify prompts, and this one turned out to be an introspective piece but I'm hoping that the majority will involve some action and dialogue instead. I've seen lots of series based on a playlist or musical prompt, and wanted to try something different from the random words now that I've reached 200 shorts in my other TWD series. Hopefully readers will like these too.


	2. Good Fortune- PJ Harvey

Good Fortune- PJ Harvey

They never seemed to get a moment to breathe, from one moment of bad fortune to the next incident. Maggie just wanted to have a few seconds to collect herself after that daring rescue, the fear that she was finally going to lose Glenn forever, and then the miraculous appearance of their friends with enough fire power to save them all. Her heart was racing and she hadn't even had the chance to talk to Glenn before they were pulled into the fight against the walkers still inside the walls of Alexandria.

"I can't believe we lived through that." Maggie shook her head, reaching out to take Glenn's hand and lead him away from where the others were letting themselves come to terms with their continued existence.

He was trembling slightly, but clutched at her and let her lead him that short distance. It would give them much privacy, but being out of sight when there was still possible danger didn't appeal to either of them at the moment. It was too risky after everything else.

"I was at the top of that tower and thought that all of my good luck had vanished, and then you and Enid appeared and it felt like I was throwing the bad fortune from the day out into the wind again." She gave him a shaky smile, "I know you wanted me to stay here for safety, but I don't think we should separate like that again."

Glenn nodded, "You might be right. It could have been so much worse, and one day when we're trying to find our way back to each other it might not work out. Law of averages, some day it will go wrong. I'd rather that we were together instead of wondering what happened."

"Exactly." She glanced toward the porch, where several of their friends were sitting or standing, and then kissed him quickly. "Our good luck can only be stronger when we're together."


	3. Superstition

Superstition – Stevie Wonder

Even after talking to an actual scientist that had studied the cause of the dead rising, he didn't really understand what had happened. Rick had the feeling that a lot of other survivors were in the same boat. Part of it was not being a scientist or a doctor, but part of it was just that it seemed like such an impossible thing to happen. What was next, vampires?

Not understanding didn't change the facts of their current situation though. They had to do all they could to survive and keep going on, no matter what was against them. It might seem that the only good things they had were all in the past, but that couldn't stop them either. They had to save each other, keep each other from falling into the daydreams of a better life, and keep each other strong as much as they possibly could. Denial of the walkers was a weakness, and trying to understand it better would only be a distraction.

"Come on, we need to get moving again. This road isn't so bad, but we might run into trouble up ahead." He handed another bottle of water to Lori and she nodded, accepting it and his words. They hadn't been out of the city for long, but every minute they lingered in the open was another chance for something to go wrong. He wouldn't have wanted to stop at all, but in their hasty departure from Atlanta they had left a lot unsaid and unplanned.

Shane sidled up to his other side and made a sweeping gesture across the divided highway. "This should get us most of the way there if it's clear, but they might have set up roadblocks closer to the base. Security measures, you know?" They both had some familiarity with that idea, being deputies. "We should stop again if it is getting too late, search for supplies in some of those stalled vehicles, clear the road if there are only a couple walkers nearby."

Rick rubbed a hand against the back of his neck, "Yeah, sounds like a good plan."


	4. Battlefield Nurse

Battlefield Nurse- Diane Cluck

Someone reached out to her for help, but she didn't even have time to see who it was before she had to swing the sword one more time and the hand disappeared. There was no time to save everyone, even when they looked to her for their salvation. There were days when she could barely save herself.

Michonne grunted and swung at another walker, separating the top of its head from its decayed face. The horror of its appearance didn't even have a chance to sink into her memory as the next and then the next appeared. She took a deep breath, nose twitching at the stench that surrounded them, and cleared a few more walkers and a few more steps on the way to the infirmary. With Rick close behind here there was no chance to slow or hesitate.

It was only luck that had kept them going, and Rick had looked to her with such perfect trust to get them there. They all looked at her in these situations as though she would always have a way to save them; something in her face or expression that kept them calm and feeling as though there was a chance even in the worst circumstances. She would make it through to the infirmary, with Rick, this time. The next time, or the time after that? Michonne knew that sooner or later they would look to her and she wouldn't be able to save them, and whatever they saw in her eyes would just be a lie.


	5. (Don't You) Forget About Me

(Don't You) Forget About Me – Simple Minds

Even as she walked away, Michonne kept expecting that she would hear Andrea call out to her again. She couldn't believe that the blonde would throw away the trust and friendship they had developed over the last several months for a man she hardly knew and the thin veneer of security behind Woodbury's walls. Was their time together worth so little to the other woman?

No voice called out to her though, and the only looks she got were from the wary residents, unused to seeing a strange woman with a weapon. She didn't even give them a second thought on her way to the wall. She had to focus on her own survival now, and part of her was sure that the Governor would send someone after her. For all their polite words about letting people come and go as they pleased, she hadn't seen any evidence of it yet. Something was wrong with this place, and that man, and Michonne was hurt that Andrea didn't seem to trust her instincts, and a little angry too. She had earned that trust; she had let Andrea see past her carefully constructed walls and it hurt to be abandoned so easily.

As soon as she was outside the walls she breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing was over yet, she had to be wary, and after she figured out where she was going, she had to find a plan to convince Andrea to come with her again. Maybe after being inside those walls the other woman would have a chance to see that Michonne's instincts were right about the small community. If that happened she had to be close-by to help her friend get out too.

First survive, then plan, and hopefully Andrea wouldn't forget about her or their time together. Michonne glanced back at the wall, unsheathing her katana with a flourish, and turned to walk into the woods. She could stand to be alone for a while, moving silently through the woods while she shored up her defenses. She might need allies against this place, and her time with Andrea showed her that she sometimes needed other people, but she wasn't going to let them in so easily the next time.


	6. Bloodletting

Bloodletting – Concrete Blonde (AN: I have three songs from them, so who knew that two would come up so close together?)

Merle was a vampire. Not in the blood-sucking, undead sort of way, but in the way that he had sucked any future out of Daryl's life and kept coming back to ruin anything that Daryl had created for himself. Like a blood sucker, only not as a romantic as the ones in films. Daryl snorted, crouching down by the river. Even when his brother wasn't around he managed to screw things up.

He had left the small group while they were setting up their small camp on the farm. They were all making nice with the farmer and his family and Daryl just felt out of place. He didn't want to sit around taking about the weather, or thanking the family for what they had done for Carl, he wanted to find the other child that had been with their group. The one that Lori and Rick had already seemed to forget about. He didn't blame them too much, considering their focus, but he well remembered being a forgotten child.

Which brought him back to his brother. Merle had left him behind often enough as a kid, so he was used to surviving on his own. Being lost, getting away from their father, whatever it was he needed to do all he could rely upon was himself. When he had his brother had both survived what seemed to be the end of the world, he had thought that it was finally a time he could count on Merle to do more than just take advantage and boss him around. Instead Merle just kept to his old ways, wanting to take whatever he could get without thought to the consequences around them, and now Daryl was on his own with this group of people.

He picked up a stick, poking the muddy shore with it, before looking up toward the farm again. It was getting close to dusk, and he knew he should get back before long, but the way they looked at him sometimes made him want to just walk into the woods and not come back. He could survive just fine without them. He had doubts about their ability to do without him though, and no one else seemed to remember that they should be looking for a little girl except her mother.

Daryl threw the stick into the water, watching as it spun around for a moment before sinking. He needed to get back to their camp, before they started having more crazy ideas about the silent outsider. Probably thought he did some weird hippie redneck stuff like dance around the woods under the moon to get ready for hunting or making moonshine. He snorted, amused for a moment, wishing he had a drink. That desire flared and vanished though. He had to keep his wits about him at all times now, there was no time for the things that Merle had led him into before. He didn't want to become a pale shadow, lurking like his brother's junkie friends.


	7. At Night

At Night- The Cure

"It's getting colder, isn't it?" Glenn rubbed his hands together briefly, sparing a moment to glance at Sasha. She had been taking more shifts on the wall, and in the tower, even before the sudden attacks and the invasion of the walkers into Alexandria. He was a little hesitant around her, not really ever getting close to her at the prison, or on the road. After losing the two men that were important in her life she had become fierce and cold in a way that didn't invite more conversation.

She shook her head, snorting softly, "It always seems to be getting colder, one way or another. Why are you out here tonight? I thought that you had day shifts, so you and Maggie could be together at night."

He shrugged, "Rosita asked, Maggie was tired and everyone else was busy. Am I so terrible to be up here with?" He almost smiled, but stopped himself when she turned to smirk at him.

"Could be worse." Sasha gestured toward the darkened houses, "I bet you know all of the recent gossip." Her expression grew more serious as she continued staring out over the houses.

"I think they are finally realizing how dangerous the world has become, maybe believing the things we told them finally." Glenn took a deep breath, "Everything is different when you can stay in your own bed, safe, at night and not worry about what might be lurking out beyond the walls."

"I was mad at them for that, when we first got here. Maybe I shouldn't have judged too harshly, considering that I survived in a bunker for so long, untouched. After Bob, and then Tyreese . . . it was hard to think these things through. They just seemed to have it so easy here. Now they don't."

"No one does, not really. Even the ones who think they have safety are only going to find out that it has made them weak when things fall apart, and everything always seems to fall apart eventually." Glenn stopped, frowning, "Can't let that stop us from living, and trying to survive for the future though."

"The future, like having a baby? You know you're crazy, right?"

Glenn laughed, "Yeah, we do, but we're not giving up today."


	8. Do You Realize

Do You Realize? – The Flaming Lips

"I love you." Tara blurted it out, and then flinched. It wasn't the best of ways to say that, though the circumstances didn't make it any less true. Denise had frozen for a moment, as soon as the words had come out, and she looked at Tara intently.

"You aren't just saying that because you're about to leave on a dangerous mission with Rick?" Denise continued to stare at her, not letting her reaction to Tara's statement show yet.

Tara hesitated, "Well, it is true, but the mission is part of the reason I wanted to say it now." She shrugged and turned to the weapons she had laid out, "If Heath and I leave for the scavenging run after this all goes down, I won't see you for a while. If anything happened? I want you to know how I felt. Everyone I have ever known in my life, before a couple months ago, is dead. Sometimes I let the moment pass when I should have said something and now it's too late to ever tell them how I felt about them. I didn't want to waste the moment this time."

Denise was quiet for a moment, "I love you too." She touched one of Tara's knives, "And you will come back. I know it."

"I'll make sure someone tells you that I was fine before we split from the group, just so you know, for sure." Tara gave her girlfriend a crooked smiled and shrugged, "I'd want to hear that if you were the one on the road. Though, for the record, I'm glad that you are not going out there."

"For the record, so am I, though I'm going to worry about you the entire time you are gone." Denise frowned, "These people sound dangerous."

"They are, but so are we." Tara turned away from her preparations and opened her arms for a hug, "I promise that I'll do everything that I can to come back."


End file.
